My Last Weekend

I'm convinced that the closer you come to the end of a good thing (and the beginning of another good thing) the faster time goes. I have had a great time, and I cannot believe that in 5 days time I will be leaving Korea (possibly forever -- although I will probably be back to visit -- I know too many people here).

So in order to say bye I went out and partied on Saturday night, although sadly I am horrible at remembering to take pictures when I am out drinking -- so all I have is this one of Shannon and Liz enjoying the snow.Shannon (left) is from BC and used to snow, Liz is and Aussi and this was her first experience with falling snow -- she has seen it on the ground before :)

It was a rather small group of people, between snow and sickness and other bad timing, but we still all had fun. So much so that by 5:30 am when the trains started, I had no idea what time it was. And not being fully with it I decided to head home -- even though I had to be back in the city for a hike at 1 pm. That doesn't sound too bad but the commute usually takes about 2 hours (from bar to home) and in the snow it took 3, so I got home only 2.5 hours before I had to leave for the hike.

So you know me, I slept 2.25 hours, woke up, got ready and made it to the hike on time -- just. It was really beautiful. The north gate of Seoul. The south and east gates are really famous shopping areas (Namdaemun and Dongdaemun) but the north is basically unknown. That is because it is located on the edge of Bukansan (the mountain north of Seoul) and has been closed to the public since the 1960's. Apparently a North Korean spy was found there and so it was deemed a sensitive area and closed off. But this past spring it was opened to Koreans and in the summer it was opened to foreigners. You have to take a guided tour, which also means you have to submit all sorts of info about yourself -- Name, passport number, date of entry -- craziness.It is a really easy hike -- considering the other ones I have been on in Korea. But there is a great view of the city from the top. The first city picture is Gyeongbukgung -- My favorite palace in Seoul.Also with all the fresh snow the whole hike was gorgeous. I assume that all the barbed wire around the outside of the old fortress wall was there to close off the area. You can see the wire at the edge of the fence in the picture.I went with a friend from Osan, and she brought 2 others. There were supposed to be 8 of us -- but Sunday is not a good day for waking up :) The 4 of us who did go had a great time. I was a little too dead to enjoy it as much as I would have liked, but it was beautiful, and looking back at the pictures I will not remember that I was a walking zombie.

Korean Food

I love food. I have yet to arrive in a country and not enjoy their food (I can't imagine how hard that would be). Korea's food is no exception, I love it. Most (but not all) is spicy and 99% is delicious. Also after spending 2 years eating in Korea it will be hard to go back to normal. Salad is much easier to eat with chopsticks than with a fork, and I am not used to eating anywhere that you don't share your food. Usually here you choose your meal before you go to the restaurant, as all places specialize in only 1 or 2 things. Then you order that specialty, they bring it, usually in a large serving container, or a pot, or if it is bbq on a plate and the grill is in the middle. Then they bring out a million side dishes until at the end of the meal your table looks like this:

Here is some basic galbi (Korean bbq) just starting to cook -- mmmmm.

Below is jjimdalk, one of my favorites, chicken, noodles and vegies cooked in a double boiler -- I need the recipe -- hopfully Xuen can get it for me before I leave.

Below is one of many spicy soups. This one is potato and pork, the meat falls off the bones it is great -- it's also what I had for dinner tonight :) This is how it comes when you order it for delivery, the guy comes back later to pick up the dishes -- what a great system!

This last one is street food. I love the selection and it is all great, except the bondeagi -- silk worm larvae are not my favorite food.

Fish Dissection

So I don't work at a normal English school, luckily. That means that sometimes I get to do really fun stuff. So last Friday I did a fish dissection with my kids -- it was great :) The kids (who are in grades 8, 9 & 10) started pretty squeamish, but quickly overcame that. They had a blast. They even cut the eyes out and took out the lenses -- an awesome way to end a Friday!

Last AK trip

Over the last 2 years part of the reason I have had such a great time in Korea has been Adventure Korea. I have been on at least 20 trips over the 2 years, and every time I have had a blast. So in preparing to leave I planned a final AK trip -- the first ski weekend of the year.
Surprisingly enough I didn't know anyone (at least not well -- there were a few people I recognized), but that has never bothered me before, nor did it this time. I met people as we were all standing around getting our rental equipment. Spent the early part of the afternoon showing a girl who is going to Whistler in Feb the basics of skiing (as she has never been on skis in her life). Then I headed off to some harder slopes. The snow was crappy, and the lines were huge -- but hey this is Korea, at least I was skiing. Note the crowds in the picture are about half the size of the afternoon crowds (this was taken Sunday morning) Then they shut down from 4:30 to 6:30 to re-groom the slopes, so it was time to check into the hotel. (It was the nicest hotel I have ever been in on an AK trip).
Also it was a good time for dinner. I went out with all the people who had night passes, as we all wanted to eat fairly quickly and then get back on the hills. We crossed the street from the resort and found a samgyupsal place (basically bacon) It is tasty but not too healthy :) However, I had not had it in almost a year, so it was a nice change.

Then back to the slopes. They were soooo much nicer; fewer people; it wasn't snowing; and the snow had dried out, yea! I was a very happy camper!
After skiing I met up with Seokjin, the guy who runs the trips, and went with him, the one staff member on the trip, and the bus driver, out for beer and more Samgyupsal :) non for a year then twice in one night! With the samgyupsal we cooked some kimchi on the grill -- I love kimchi now -- but cooked in samgyupsal grease it is excellent! We reminisced about past trips and had a great beginning to the night.

After dinner (the second time round) there was a room party, then a hall party. So the next morning I was happy to not have a ski pass. I got up late, headed to the sauna and just relaxed. After the sauna I went out and got a few pics.
After the 5 hour drive back to Seoul (I hate Seoul traffic on Sundays -- it only took 3 to get to the slopes) I had to say bye. Which by now I am pretty good at, but it is still sad.


After getting back into Seoul I went to Xuen's house for dinner (seeing as I had never been to her place before finding it was a bit of an adventure in itself) -- fun times.

My Last Free Weekend

This is it. My last free weekend. Next weekend I am going skiing, then to a friends for a housewarming party. The next weekend I am hoping Adrienne will come, and it is my last weekend, so I will be partying in Seoul. Then the following Saturday I head home.

So this weekend I was thinking of going into the city, but decided against it last night when it started snowing. Today (Saturday) of course it is beautiful, but I still figured staying home and getting stuff done was a good idea.

Warren, Brenda and Melina Liz, Sam and Becky

Last night we had a birthday dinner for Brenda at a local restaurant, then we went to WaBar, where all the foreigners go on Fridays and had a good, albeit a bit of a silly night :)

Brenda, Liz and Natalie Amy will only smile for pictures if dressed up, so here she is :)

My Last Korean Hike

So after 2 years in Korea last weekend I went on my last hike. On Saturday, November 25th I headed into Cheongju (a medium sized city in the Middle of South Korea) with Becky and Sam. We spent the day in the city, checking out the Baekje Museum and their mountain fortress.

The museum was cool. The Beakje period was in the first half of the the 1st millennium, so it was really amazing to see some of the pottery recovered from the graves. The fact that it had survived so long, and that it was so well made was just incredible. Some of the rims on the bowls and cups were amazingly thin.

It was a great day, and a good way to work into the hike we would be doing the next day. The fortress wall was about 4km long, but it was entertaining, because unlike most walls in Korea the inside of the wall was about at ground level, so any defenders would be visible on the top of the wall -- very odd. The weather was beautiful, there were still a few trees that were colourful, overall a great day. At the end of the day we took a bus to Songnisan town, right beside Songnisan National park, where we would hike the next day.

On the way to the bus we met an English teacher who lived in a town close to the park, and she seemed to think that we would not get all the way to the park town that night -- not that any of us really cared -- which seemed to surprise her. But we did get all the way there -- so that was good. When our bus arrived there was a guy at the bus station who was trying to get people to go to his motel -- perfect -- it was after dark -- we didn't need to wander looking for a place to stay. The town (below) was really cute.

We got up pretty early, 'cause we wanted to get an early start on the hike. At the bottom of the mountain is Beopjusa a very nice temple. So we spent about an hour there. The main hall was unreal. It is too bad the photos are not allowed in that building, because the painting on the roof and all around in that hall was unreal. Also that temple complex is known for its Buddha statue. It is a very large, gold-plated, standing Buddha, and it is featured on the cover of my Lonely Planet. A very impressive statue. The sign said that it is a replica of one originally made in about 776. The other impressive part of this temple complex is the 5 story wooden pagoda. There are few wooded pagodas in Korea, so this was very cool to see. Of course there were also some great temple guards standing on demons, beautiful painting on all the buildings and rock wishes just outside the gate. All in all it was a very impressive temple complex, and a good way to begin the hike.

From there the first 45 minutes or so of the hike was easy. Then it got harder (as was to be expected. It was a good hike, as all are in Korea, and we definitely chose the best possible path. For most of the day we were on the trail alone -- that is almost unheard of here! Also the way we went up was difficult in parts, but most of the way down was not bad at all -- yea us great choice! There was a very cool rock about 3/4 of the way up the mountain. It was pretty cool to see. And at the top there was a rock cliff where the marker that is at the top of every Korean mountain is found. Below is the sign pointing us to the top of the mountain -- I loved the picture telling us there would be a rock at the top :) At the top we were in the clouds, it was misty, and very cold. I think it was the first time Becky and Sam had see the large number of people who can group together at the top of a mountain. Since there was a shelter about 150 meters from the very top of the mountain, there were tons of people there eating their lunches. Even though I have seen it many times, it still seems nuts to me, to hang out and eat at the top of the mountain in the cold wind and rain, when if you descend for only 30 minutes or so it is dry! Eating at the top of the mountain is a great idea in nice weather, the view is excellent, but if not -- what's the point? At the bottom of the mountain we came across these drying persimmons.

Our decent of the mountain went very nicely, we found a great rock to sit on for lunch, and made it down by 2 pm. Then we caught the bus to a little tiny town. From there we caught another bus to Daejeon. It is one of the few big cities I had never been too. There is a great hot spring there, so we went and had a great soak. That is by far the best way to end a hike. It leaves you feeling much better the next day. An excellent end to a wonderful weekend.

Busy Weekend

Although not a long weekend this weekend started on Friday for me. Before work I headed into the city with Becky and Sam (2 of my coworkers) and Jen and Joy (my director's daughters). We went to the 'Blue House' or president's house, in Korean called Cheong Wa Dae. The name 'Blue House' comes from the colour of the roof tiles. It is mainly open on weekdays for tours, so we booked this tour 2 weeks ago. They only run tours one Saturday a month. So going on the weekend was impossible -- before I leave. We had to meet the tour group before 10 am so we left Osan at 8 am -- ugh! Lucky us, we got to do the tour with a big group of kids -- fun fun! The grounds of Cheong Wa Dae are beautiful, especially in fall, and the house itself is spectacular. You don't get to go inside, just look around the outside, but it is really nice.

After the tour I introduced everyone to my favorite Indian food restaurant in Dongmeo. It is sooooooo tasty. The girls liked it -- which was great -- since I wasn't sure if they would. They have not been exposed to a lot of foreign foods. From there we headed back into work.

On Saturday I went on the Han River Boat Cruise. I was lucky and got there only 15 minutes before the boat was to leave. So I got on, and was the only person there. Then 5 minutes later a couple got on. Just as I am thinking the boat with leave any minute I hear a bunch of kids, screaming and running. I look up to see about 75 kids running towards the boat -- this is not going to be so nice and quiet after all! The kids were all a part of a youth group and they were accompanied by only 2 adults -- yikes! They were around 11 or 12 for the most part. One girl spoke English quite well (in the middle below) and she asked me questions, to which no matter what I answered everyone thought it was funny. Especially if my answer included a Korean word. This country can be soooooo funny! I cannot imagine what it would be like to grow up in such a monocultural society that I thought anyone who looked different was the most interesting person around.

The kids were pretty well behaved and since they gave them lunch on the boat -- they were not out talking to me the whole time. So I did get some opportunities to get some pictures of the city. Here is the 63 building, the tallest building in Seoul.There are a lot of people and a lot of roads,here are some of them intertwining.
After the tour a did a little more shopping. While walking around the city I came across this building art. I am now finished buying Christmas presents. Although I will probably go back to Insadong 1 more time, because I love it there.

On Sunday I went hiking. I read that the hike uo Namhansan was easy and only took a couple of hours, so I was able to not worry about getting up early. Usually went hiking I get up at 6 and head out -- but not this time -- yea! I got to the town and started up the mountain. Passed some rock wishes, everything was beginning normally. then about halfway up I passed a man going down -- in his bare feet!!!! Now this would be crazy in Canada, but here it is really insane! Since whenever I wear hiking SANDALS in the summer time Korean hikers like to yell at me for my footwear. They think you should always be wearing hiking shoes (or high heals --- but that's another story). So needless top say that was very odd.

The hike to the first peak was really easy, maybe 40 minutes, then at the top there was a road! What a strange mountain!?! Oh well from there I headed towards the south gate. This mountain has the southern fortress that protected Seoul on it (Nam means south). The northern fortress is on Bukhansan (Buk means north). It was not far away. At the gate was the official entrance to the park -- but they did not seem to be charging money -- very strange. I walked along the wall for a bit. There were some nice views of the southern part of the city, but they were hazy views. Inside the park was a pavilion where a king (himself) fought for 45 days to keep the city safe. It was a nice building. The hike was beautiful as we are nearing the end of fall the mountain was a nice copper color.

along the hike there were lots of little chickadees. They are really cute, and I love to see any wildlife in Korea. It was a nice easy hike, and I got home pretty early so I was able to relax in the evening -- yea!